[This series on Brita’s trip from Sweden to North America begins here.]
In Part 1 of this series, Brita Johansdotter left her home in Hudiksvall, Sweden for the last time on Sunday, January 22, 1893.
Four years after her husband emigrated to America.
Nine months after her son Johan died.
Five days after taking her daughter Helena to live with another family.
The first leg of her journey – from Hudiksvall to Göteborg – can only have been filled with sadness and anxiety.
And so I found myself wondering about her trip to Göteborg. What was her mode of transportation? And how long did the journey last?
After doing some research, it seems most likely she would have made the trip by train, since rail lines were well established by that time.
This map illustrates the rail lines in place by 1910. I outlined in red the route she might have travelled.
By Nordisk Familjebok (Nordisk Familjebok) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsThe trip from Stockholm to Göteborg took 14 hours via express train . . . so perhaps we can assume the trip from Hudiksvall to Göteborg took about 24 hours.
Twenty-four hours to remember all that had gone before and ponder what might lie ahead.
Depending on when she left Hudiksvall on January 22nd, Brita would have probably arrived in Göteborg on either January 23rd or 24th – assuming there were no overnight or lengthy stops along the way.
We know that her ship sailed on Friday, February 10th. So what did she do for two weeks while waiting to continue her journey?
In Part 3 of Brita’s trip from Sweden to North America, I’ll cover what I’ve learned about how she might have spent her time in Göteborg and give some detail on the next leg of her trip.
On Tuesday, January 17, 1893, twenty-nine year old Brita Johansdotter1, wife of Anders “Andrew” Dalin2, and mother of two children, Johan and Helena, awoke knowing that the following Sunday she would leave her home in Hudiksvall, Sweden – for the last time.
Her first destination would be Göteborg, a seaport on the west coast of Sweden, where she would board a ship headed for North America.
After four long years, she would finallyjoin her husband who emigrated in January of 1889.
But I suspect that her very first thoughts that morning were of her two children. Johan would not make the trip because he had died nine months earlier at the age of 4. And little Helena, who had just celebrated her first birthday only a few weeks earlier, would not make the trip . . . because she was not Andrew’s daughter. And now the day had finally come when Brita had to face that reality head on.
Four years earlier, on January 5, 1889, Brita’s husband Andrew and his brother Eric left Hudiksvall to emigrate to “Nordamerika”.3 Prior to that date, Andrew and Brita had been living with Andrew’s parents, Lars Andersson and Brita Anderssdotter,4 since the time the couple married on October 30, 1887.5
On December 27, 1887, a son – Johan – was born to Andrew and Brita.6
Brita continued living with her in-laws after Andrew left. And several years later, she became pregnant – and obviously, Andrew was not the father of the expected baby.
Screenshot of record showing Brita living in the home of her in-laws, with her two children Johan and Helena
Surprisingly, Brita stayed on with her in-laws during that time 7 and her daughter Helena was born on December 31, 1891.8
Screenshot of baptismal record (part of birth record) showing names of baptismal witnesses
The new baby was baptized several months later on February 27th and the “Dopvittnen” (baptismal witnesses) are listed as Per Olof Olsson, his wife Karin, son Johan Olof, and daughter Emma Christina – the same family with whom Helena went to live when her mother emigrated a year later.9
Johan Lars Anders Dahlin
Three and a half months after Helena’s birth, Brita’s four-year-old son Johan died on April 1, 1892, of a lung inflammation.10
And now the day had arrived – January 17, 1893 – when Brita had to face the reality of leaving her one-year-old daughter behind. The emotional pain must have been unbearable.
Most of the information above was discovered during research I conducted over several months last year, primarily from records located at ArkivDigital.
The records I discovered regarding Johan were not a surprise, as my father told me about him years ago. But he did not tell me about Helena – and I suspect he never knew about her.
Once the pieces of the story came together, I had many questions . . .
Who was Helena’s father?
How did her in-laws react when they found out Brita was pregnant by another man?
Why did they let her continue to live with them after she became pregnant?
Is it possible that one of the three males living in the same house with Brita was Helena’s father?
Is it plausible that one of the three males living in the same house with Brita was Helena’s father?
Did Brita stay in touch with Helena, or anyone else who might have been willing to tell her about Helena?
What happened to Helena? And does she have any surviving descendants?
Did Andrew know about Helena?
Other than the relatives in Sweden, did anyone in the family know about Helena?
Many questions.
In Part 2 of this story, I’ll cover Brita’s overland trip from Hudiksvall to Göteborg.
SOURCES
Even though a married woman, Brita went by her maiden name JOHANSDOTTER while in Sweden. Once in the United States, she took on her husband’s surname. ↩
According to Swedish records I have located to date, Andrew’s surname was most often spelled DAHLIN in Sweden. Once in the United States, however, the spelling became DALIN. ↩
Hudiksvall (Gävleborgs län, Hälsingland, Sweden), “Household Records, 1881-1891,” AI:19d; Regional Archives, Uppsala; digital images, “Swedish Church Records,” ArkivDigital (http://www.arkivdigital.net/sources/3099 : 20 March 2016), for Hudiksvall AI:19d (also numbered 135594.b1), image 241. ↩
Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1860-1941, digital images,Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), Gävleborg County, Söderhamn Parish, year 1888 (image 26 of 26), Johan Lars Anders entry on right-hand side page, item 2, which page is actually part of Hudiksvall Parish. ↩
Hudiksvall (Gävleborgs län, Hälsingland, Sweden), “Congregation Records, 1891-1900,” Alla:1c; Regional Archives, Uppsala; digital images, “Swedish Church Records,” ArkivDigital (http://www.arkivdigital.net/sources/3099 : 20 March 2016), for Hudiksvall Alla:1c (also numbered 35600), image 90. ↩
Hudiksvall (Gävleborgs län, Hälsingland, Sweden), “Birth and Christening Records, 1879-1894,” CI:5; Regional Archives, Uppsala; digital images, “Swedish Church Records,” ArkivDigital (http://www.arkivdigital.net/sources/3099 : 20 March 2016), for Hudiksvall CI:5 (also numbered 135624), image 280. ↩
Hudiksvall, “Birth and Christening Records, 1879-1894,” CI:5; also see Hudiksvall (Gävleborgs län, Hälsingland, Sweden), “Congregation Records, 1891-1900,” Alla:1c; Regional Archives, Uppsala; digital images, “Swedish Church Records,” ArkivDigital (http://www.arkivdigital.net/sources/3099 : 20 March 2016), for Hudiksvall Alla:1c (also numbered 35600), image 316. ↩
Sweden, Selected Indexed Death Records, 1840-1860 and 1878-1942, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), Gävleborg County, Hudiksvall Parish, year 1892 (image 3 of 16), Johan Lars Anders Dahlin entry on left-side page, item 34. ↩
Thanks to a newly discovered Swedish 3rd cousin, a few more pieces of my family history puzzle are in place.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been hard at work researching my father’s Swedish roots, primarily through the website ArkivDigital.
I really cannot say enough good stuff about this website. Provided you have a location with which to begin your research, the records are amazing. I had heard that Swedish records were some of the best in the genealogy world – and believe me, they are. Earlier this year I also spent some time researching this database and since then, I have identified and downloaded 70 or so records, all relating to my Swedish great grandparents and their ancestors.
Armed with all the new information I’ve obtained, I was able to do additional searching in Ancestry. And a few weeks ago, I noticed there were some Ancestry users from Sweden who had some of the same people in their tree that I have in mine. I contacted several of them – and finally located a Swedish cousin (svenska kusin)!!
My “new” cousin and I have determined that our great great grandfathers Äkers Lars Andersson (1827-1913)1 and Erik Andersson (1837-1919) were brothers.2 They were the sons of Östbors Goth Lars Larsson (1764-1834) and Östbors Margreta Larsdotter (1767-1807). Lars and Margreta had nine children total.
I will share more detailed information later, along with source information. But for now, I wanted to share my excitement over discovering a “new” cousin!
And just one more fun fact before I close this post. Through her research, my cousin learned that Lars was a boat or ship maker in Hudiksvall. In fact, she told me, he was “some kind of boss”.
And she also said that the boats he made were “most certainly” wooden.
Hmmm, I thought. Wooden boat. Why does that sound so familiar?
And then I remembered this photo of my great grandfather, Lars’ son Anders (“Andrew”) Dalin.
And now we know where “Grampa Dalin” learned to make a wooden boat.
NOTES
My new cousin tells me that the word “Äkers” on the front of Lars‘ name indicates either where he lived or was born, and was a common practice in the county where he was born. ↩
At some point later in their lives, both brothers added new surnames to their original names. Lars added DAHLIN (sometimes spelled DALIN) and Erik added GLAD. I am a descendent of Lars on my father’s side and can confirm that DALIN is the surname that was handed down. I had recently wondered if the DALIN name was what they refer to in Sweden as a “soldier name”. But my cousin confirmed that Lars was not a soldier. However, Lars‘ brother Erik was a soldier and GLAD is a soldier name. Click here for more information on Swedish soldier names. ↩
This is Part 3 of “Who is the woman in this photo?” Click here to read Part 1 and here to read Part 2.
Once again, here are the three photos I sent to Maureen for review prior to our phone consultation.
Photo #1, date unknown but estimated early 1880s to early 1890s
Photo #2, ca. 1910
Photo #3, date unknown
Maureen’s Analysis
First, I’d like to say how much I enjoyed my chat with Maureen. She was very friendly and generous with her tips and observations. I would recommend her to anyone who might need a professional to take a look at their family photos.
Maureen estimated that Photo #1 was probably taken around 1890. And she made a comment that she thought the boy in the photo looked ill, which is interesting considering Johan died when he was only 4 years old – and Maureen knew nothing about that fact prior to the phone call.
Having already established that Brita is probably the woman in Photos #2 and #3, Maureen agreed that the woman in Photo #1 is probably Brita Dalin. Her assessment was based primarily on the woman’s large eyes, which she said were quite visible in both Photo #1 and Photo #3, and only slightly less obvious in Photo #2 due to the glare from the glasses she is wearing.
On an interesting side note, Maureen asked if I knew how Johan had died. I told her that I had only recently located a birth record for Johan but not a death record. The morning after we talked, I made another search for his death record and located it at Ancestry.com. He was four years old when he died in April of 1892 and the cause of death was listed as “lung inflammation”.1 In addition, Maureen commented that Brita looked very sad in all three photos. And I agreed.
Maureen also thought Photo #3 looked like either a passport photo or perhaps a photo taken to finalize her citizenship. I have not yet located any record to show that she traveled to a location requiring a passport nor have I located any citizenship documents, although her husband Andrew filed a “Declaration of Intention” to become a citizen in 1918.
Oh, and then a funny thing happened. You know, one of those “How in the world did I not see this before??” kind of thing.
As I was reviewing the back of Photo #2 for this blog post, I noticed there were six medallion-type images that contained references to several locations and dates, as well as several words that resembled the phrases “Silver Medal” and “Bronze Medal”. After running a few of these phrases through Google Translate (Swedish to English), it appears the back of the photo contains images of six medals that were awarded to the photographer in various years, including 1879, 1882 and 18892 – which means, of course, that at least Photo #2 must be dated after 1889.
And then for fun, I cropped head shots of all of Brita’s children (from two different photos) so I could compare them side by side. The birth order of these children is as indicated in the photo.
Do you think the little boy on the left is the sibling of the four children on the right? I think the lips of the three boys, and possibly Freda, are similar. And Johan, Cid and Osma all seem to have high foreheads.
In conclusion, the discovery of the death record of Johan finally puts to rest the story my father told me so long ago – about his grandparents Andrew and Brita who immigrated to the United States, and how they had a son named “John” who was born in Sweden but died when he was a young boy.
And here I want to say a great big “Thank You!” to Maureen for her assistance in helping me fill in the pieces of this family story.
Next, I plan to search Swedish records for more information about Andrew and Brita and their birth parents.3
Copyright (c) 2016, Lark M. Dalin Robart
FOOTNOTES
Gavleborg County, Halsingland, Sweden, Death Records, Hudiksvall, Johan Lars Anders Dahlin, 1 April 1892; image, “Sweden, Selected Indexed Death Records, 1840-1860 and 1878-1942,” Ancestry.com (https://ancestry.com : accessed 24 May 2016); citing Swedish Church Records Archive. Johanneshov, Sweden: Genline AB. ↩
Although “1889” is a little difficult to read and could be “1869″. ↩
In between drafting and finalizing this blog post, I did some research on the web site Arkivdigital.com, which proved very successful. I’ll be reporting on those findings in an upcoming blog post. ↩
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